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Defense of Louisiana. 



An investigation having been ordered by the Congress of the 
United States into the affairs of Louisiana, I was selected by the 
Congressional Committee to add my testimony in reference to 
the condition of the rural districts. I responded to the sum- 
mons — answering the questions with simplicity and candor — only 
abstaining from any political allusions; also from words of in- 
vective against individuals, and of disrespect to constituted 
authority. Subsequently, I was asked to join in a protest, calm 
and moderate in tone, intended to purge this community from 
the charge of disloyalty and lawless violence. I did so with 
sincerity. For this testimony, my name has been singled out for 
rebuke. Words of accusation have been pronounced, which if my 
accusers had known the facts would have remained unspoken. 
He is a novel politician who never cast a vote at the polls — 
never, in a sermon, or prayer, or public address, gave utterance to 
a political sentiment through a ministry of forty years. He who 
searches the heart, knows the struggles it has cost me to depart from 
that reserve which I have always endeavored to maintain upon 
questions of national polity. Nor could I now be moved to 
speak, unless the interests of the Church were involved in the 
issues of the hour. Disastrous in its effects upon the commerce 
and agriculture of the State, the present dejection is still more 
fatal to the welfare of the Church. Of Zion it may be truly said: 
" the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." It is time, 
when a country has arrived at this condition, when it is no 
longer able to maintain schools for the young, nor churches to 
be a refuge for a sorrowing people, nor Priests to weep between 
the porch and the altar, and to make intercession for them in 
the day of their calamity; it is time for one charged, with my 
responsibility, to speak out. To refuse this, would be to stifle the 
remonstant energy which survives in every church, not totally 
dead, to defend itself against the evils which threaten its decay 
and extinction. " Thou shalt appear before rulers and kings, for 
my name's sake," is a duty not confined to the early ministers of 
religion. 

I desire to abstain from all needless crimination of others. 
My duty will have been discharged, when the load of calumny 
which rests upon this people is lifted, when the story of Southern 
outrages against negroes and their allies is explained, and the 



Church of Christ is rescued from the suspicion of winking at 
lawlessness and crime — holding the nation breathless at the per- 
secutions endured in the cause of equal rights, without a sigh of 
remonstrance from those who call themselves Christians. 

To what is this tending ? Nothing is more practicable than 
the cultivation of harmony among the States of this Union. Not 
less practicable, is the restoration of amity and affection between 
the two races in the South. Our hope is to live in peace with the 
negroes, ourselves and our children — but not while a respectable 
body of citizens are busy in segregating them and nursing dis- 
trust and alienation in their breasts ; not while the public 
journals are teeming with accusations unknown in political 
warfare and foreign to the spirit of civilization, invoking upon 
the white race the restraints due to a turbulent and sanguinary 
people. The two systems of policy are renewed, and becoming 
every day more distinct. The one coercive, the other curative in 
its effects. They confront eacn other. The nation will have to 
make its choice between them. 

Any discussion of this subject must be imperfect, which does 
not include the questions involved in the war, and this at present 
is impossible. The national heart, torn and bereaved, is too 
sensitive to admit any calm investigation of our recent history. 
The field on which that frightful contest was fought, is forbidden 
territory — sacred from the foot of intrusion. Silence reigns 
there, and the ghosts of the dead keep jealous watch over its 
noiseless realms. This sentiment of reserve does not attach to 
the events which followed upon the close of the war. No mar- 
tyr's blood shelters, and sanctifies them. Briefly to recall these 
events, will not be a hindrance, but a help to peace. 

Posterity will read with admiration, not unmingled with 
regret, of the patient struggles of the South to recover its 
forfeited rights in the Union. The privileges of representation 
first proffered were rendered nugatory in this State. Its repre- 
sentative men had all been in arms, and these by the will of 
('ongress were excluded. This act of discrimination was not 
accepted by the people. From motives honorable to their 
spirit of chivalry, but fatal to their returning prosperity, 
the oppor! unity was lost to the Southern States to recover their 
influence in the councils of the nation. This spirit of compro- 
mise was spasmodic only, and stiffened at the first breath of con- 
tradiction. Men in power, including the highest functionaries 
of the Government, who had encouraged this action of the 
Southern people, feeding them with assurances of more favo- 



rable conditions in the future, were powerless to restrain the 
extreme and radical changes which were inevitable under the 
advent of a new Congress — a Congress less subdued under the 
terrible responsibilities of the war, and less imbued therefore, 
with sympathy for the vanquished. Statesmanship fled for sanc- 
tuary to the Church. 

A spectacle sublime and beautiful was at this moment pre- 
sented to the view of the nation, as if ordained by Providence 
to guide the civil power "weary in the greatness of its way." 
The Protestant Episcopal Church, including within its pale, 
many of the enlightened statesmen of both sections, was quick 
to meet the emergency, and restore the breach which had been 
made in its constitution. Rent assunder by the exigencies of 
war, not a moment was lost by some of its chief representatives, 
to assemble in council, and — abstaining from all words of 
reproach — to proceed with its legislation as if no disruption had 
ever occurred. The reconciliation was complete. Very soon 
the cruel taunts of the adversary were hushed in silent ad- 
miration of a Union, so honorable to the spirit of brother- 
hood. Had the example of this Church been followed by the 
nation, the peace of the Church would have been the peace of 
the nation ! 

A contrary policy was adopted. For reconciliation was sub- 
stituted reconstruction ; for confidence, suspicion and distrust ; 
for unification simple and complete, tentative schemes more con- 
spicuous for ingenuity than for wisdom and mercy. Naturalists 
will not unfrequently make choice of some inferior animal, rep- 
tile or insect, on which to test their various poisons. Upon the 
poor unhappy victim, the effect is torture, perhaps death; but 
science will profit of its sufferings to correct some of its errors. 
It has been the misfortune of this State to become the subject 
for the crucial experiments of statesmen, sincere in their 
enthusiasm to enlarge the domain of policical science. Never 
was a problem in political economy, submitted to a more cruel 
demonstration. 

That the reconstruction measures adopted by Congress for the 
South, were punitive in their design, I will not assert; that their 
aim was to establish the supremacy of a party, it is not my pro- 
vince to judge ; that they were disastrous in their results, will 
be the verdict of history. 

Good men often deceive themselves. They are victims of this 
deception who boast of their forbearance in dealing with the 
South. A more consuming policy could not have been devised. 



It excluded the statesmen of the land, and a large body of its 
ablest and best citizens, from any share in the rehabilitation of the 
State, and exalted to the highest functions of government, men 
wholly ignorant and incompetent to the task, bewildered indeed 
by this sudden transformation from slaves, into magistrates and 
rulers. So perilous a change was not wise statesmanship. The 
capacity of the Africans for government had been tested on their 
own native shores. Again, in the Islands of the Gulf of Mexico. 
The attempt to transfer to this race the fairest portion of the 
South, reckoning on their numerical strength to hold it under 
their sway, was to laugh to scorn the lessons of history. Ought 
we to be surprised that the inhabitants, — proprietors of the 
soil, men of our race and lineage — should revolt at this offence to 
their pride, not to speak of the inevitable spoliation and destruc- 
tion of their property. "Witness the result — in the present con- 
dition of this State, vividly, but imperfectly described in the 
message of the President to Congress, and the testimony before 
the Committee, in this city. Was anything else to be expected 
from African supremacy? A State illustrious in history, un- 
rivalled in its resources, intense in its submission to Federal 
authority, reduced to shame and bankruptcy. Over its ample 
domain, or the larger portion of it, the eye ranges hopelessly 
for some object to break the monotony of suffering. Homes 
dilapidated and deserted, fields stretching far and wide 
uncultivated as a Libyan desert, schools suspended, churches 
closed, and when opened, half the congregation left to guard 
their property and homes from spoliation. No law exists against 
vagrancy, consequently in many parishes little or no stock is 
raised, no poultry, not even vegetables, so unsparing in the 
spirit of depredation Disgrace is never attached to stealing 
from the whites, among a large class, and the convict emerges 
from the penitentiai-y with no sense of shame, and no loss of 
respectability. Indeed, the forbearance displayed by the planters 
under these outrages, if the facts were known as I know them, 
would often be regarded with amazement. Ten years of constant 
suffering, following close upon the hardships of the war, have 
made a people naturally impetuous — thoughtful and calm, slow to 
anger, and tolerant of wrongs which would rouse almost any 
other community to revolution, regardless of consequences. 

One confession will sometimes outweigh a multitude of 
random allegations. Only the other day, a lady, high born 
and accomplished, made the remark in my presence, that 
if an order were received, commanding her with her hits- 



band and children to range themselves in front of the iron- 
clads anchored against New Orleans, and brave the tempest 
of fire from a hundred guns, the order would send no strange 
tremor to her heart — so terrible have been the sufferings she had 
endured since the war. How many of these proofs of suffering 
I could add to the statistics furnished by our military authorities 
for the instruction of the Government. These I am not careful to 
prove false or exaggerated. It comforts me to know that the voice 
of our woe has reached the ear of our rulers, and will be reverber- 
ated through the land. 

Our desolation is confessedly great, but who are its authors ? 
The State Government is powerless to inspire confidence, but 
what are its antecedents? The law is defied, but who are its 
judges, jurors, magistrates, executioners ? Our system of taxation, 
without representation, is an insult to Republican institutions. 
But what power contrived and fashioned it, and what power alone 
can lay the grim phantom in the way of our resuscitation. I 
desire to speak respectfully of the rulers of the State. I cannot 
so speak of some of its functionaries. They are neither wise nor 
good men. Louisiana is the most disturbed of all the Southern 
States, because it has offered the richest field for the cupidity and 
ambition of the greedy adventurers who are feeding upon its 
strength. It is a grave accusation to make against men, some of 
them natives of the country, that they are in league with the ne- 
groes for base and selfish ends. But is it false ? Wherefore is 
the meaningless allegation poured into their ears that the ascen- 
dancy of the white race would send them back into slavery? 
Why are they cajoled into the assumption of equal rights with 
the whites, and the next moment insulted and abused for voting 
like white people, and with white people — everywhere else no 
distinction tolerated, at the polls no sympathy or approximation. I 
wish from my heart that their iniquity ceased at this point, and 
they could prove themselves guiltless of the crime, of instigating 
the negroes to acts of aggression and armed insurrection against 
the whites — nominally to maintain their political rights, really to 
make themselves victims, and to fire the Northern heart. 

Is it incredible that men should be guilty of such crimes, and 
that the army should be invoked for their protection. A glance 
at our Indian frontiers will disclose to you the same drama in 
progress, and with the same fatal consequences to the nation's 
peace. It began many years ago, and is not yet ended. Before 
me, at this moment, is the testimony of Bishops of the Church, 
and officers of the army, to the ghastly array of facts ; annuities 



stolen by white men appointed to hand them over to the Indians, 
contracts disowned and broken, false weights and measures, 
drugs adulterated, merchandises a naked fraud, papers 
forged, school money withheld, horses stolen, men and 
women drugged with poisonous drinks and narcotics, and 
other countless wrongs which have made historical the Red 
man's agony and the nation's shame. Two years ago, I was 
present when a delegation of Indians — thirty in number — decked 
in paint and feathers, marched into a Church in New York city 
The Board of missions was in session. The interpreter ex- 
plained in a public speech how this tribe, not once only, but 
three times, had been expelled from their homes and crowded 
out from lands guaranteed them by treaty. 

I could not resist the sense of shame, and did not therefore 
share in the interchange of courtesies which I felt were unreal, as 
long as this great wrong was tolerated. A few months later, and 
the country was startled by the horrors of the lava beds, and 
later still by the treachery of the Modocs, who refrained not 
from violating a flag of truce, to wreak their vengeance upon 
men assembled to negotiate a peace. Few of those who read 
this tale of perfidy are aware that this act had its counterpart 
"in all its circumstances of infamy twenty years before, when the 
fathers of these murderers were the victims and whites were the 
traitors."* Indian butcheries have been cruel and remorseless, 
but on the other hand, military evidence is not wanting to show 
that Indian babies have been scalped, Indian camp fires have wit- 
nessed to slaughtered households — asleep under the pledge of 
protection. 

In vain has the Government labored to grapple with this 
evil. Public sentiment discourages the humane effort with 
sneers at what is called the Quaker policy of the Administration. 
So insidious is the influence of a few border politicians, to 
inflame the public mind and prevail upon it, to make their 
cause, I will not say their shame, its own. Who can doubt 
that the adoption of the same pacific policy in the South 
would excite in the same quarter, a stronger repugnance 
and contempt. The elevation of the negro race is not what they 
court. The reconciliation of the two races would be fatal to 
their influence. Nothing is so abhorrent to these peculiar friends 
and allies of the negro, as any measure tending to restore confi- 
dence in their former masters; to make them one in sentiment, 
and one in power. The Indian trader would lose his gains if the 

* Bishop Huutiugton. 



Indian could be made to listen to wise counsels, and the occupa- 
tion of these misguided men would be gone, if the Government 
could be sustained in a policy of pacification, if its agents would 
deal truthfully with the negro race, instead of deluding them 
about their return to slavery — and humanely with them, instead 
of making them discontented with their lot, and stimulating them 
to acts of provocation. 

The murders and assassinations which have defiled our land 
with blood, are thus explained. With such elements of mischief 
seething and raging beneath the surface of society, any other re- 
sult would be almost a miracle. No complaint is heard of Federal 
soldiers being murdered or molested through the South as the 
German soldiers were murdered during the occupation of French 
territory — no violence, no attempt at resistance to Federal 
authority. The disturbances are local, and in no instance, within 
my observation, have the whites been the aggressor's. The 
safety of the negroes had been as inviolable as that of the sol- 
diers, if their behavior had been as discreet and unaggressive. 
The melancholy tragedy in Grant Parish has been pro- 
claimed far and wide to the prejudice of the white people in 
this State. The fact has been strangely withheld, that before 
this event, so deeply deplored by our citizens, the negroes 
had rushed to arms, whole families of the white community had 
been frightened from their homes by insulting forays and threats of 
extermination ; some escaping across the river, and others to the 
woods—one dear child, to my knowledge, having perished from cold 
and exposure in the forest — and another already dead and laid out 
for burial was madly flung into the public street. "Prior to the at- 
tack on the fortification at Colfax," I quote from a letter addressed 
to me, by the excellent Rector of the adjacent Parish, "the negroes 
had driven from their homes every white family in the vicinity. A 
reign of terror has been inaugurated, and they had threatened 
the destruction of the white race in three parishes. Their 
deliberation to sack and burn the towns of Natchitoches, Alex- 
andria and Pineviile was openly proclaimed. Almost the whole 
negro population was armed, and prepared to carry into effect 
this perfidious design against the whites in the event of their 
being able to maintain themselves at Colfax. They courted the 
assault, being confident that they could annihilate the attacking 
party, and this being done, the country would be left defenceless, 
and they were to sally forth upon the work of destruction," I 
add the testimony of one of the victims, in his dying moments, 
one of the few white men that were killed, that he had thrown 



away his arms and had entered the building under a flag of truce 
raised by the negroes, when he received his mortal wound. Noth- 
ing is more calculated to excite a maddened crowd to the work of 
indiscriminate destruction. Witness the fate of one or more 
Indian tribes whose sudden slaughter by our Federal soldiers 
under violent provocation, has escaped any public reproof from 
the Government. The iniquity is not visited on the soldiers, nor 
does the guilt attach to the poor Indian, but to the mercenary 
horde whose avarice and perfidy taught the red man to hate the 
white man, and to bring upon themselves this terrible retribution. 
The striking fact is not disputed that the Indians under British 
dominions in the near province of Canada are universally 
pacific and respectful in their behavior, and they are increasing 
in numbers. The analagous fact is equally significant that the 
emancipated serfs in Russia have exhibited no signs of violence, 
but meekly accepted the change in their condition, contented 
with the naked gift of freedom. Which of us is not affected with 
shame at this contrast with our Indian tribes who are vexing 
themselves into a slow and lingering death ; and with our eman- 
cipated slaves who, not even in their state of bondage, were so 
discontented, so restless and impatient under i*estraint, insensible 
to the'blessings they enjoy, while there remains one boon they 
do not enjoy. For every negro admitted to Congress, there is 
an increase of many hundreds admitted to the penitentiary. 

I recite these facts in no spirit of enmity for the colored race, 
who have no warmer friend, — and many of them know it — in any 
efforts for their intellectual and moral improvement. The negroes 
are not a cruel and vindictive race. They are not inclined to be 
aggressive in political or social life. I am only concerned to 
show that negroes like Indians are very largely the victims of 
treachery. They have not like the Indians lands and forests, and 
furs to barter, but they have votes, and for these votes men will 
sacrifice the peace of the nation. 

While engaged in this conspiracy against the peace of the 
country, the efforts of these persons is to evoke public sympathy 
for their wrongs. We know what this means — it hides iniquity and 
stimulates the ardour of adherents in a doubtful cause, to raise 
the cry of persecution. If you listen to their complaints, no cause 
ever had so many martyrs. The}'' arc ostracised; for their political 
opinions or made victims of sectional animosity. Not unfrequently 
have I met with individuals through the land, who believed that to 
visit the South, would be to expose themselves to insult, if not to 
violence. An accusation of this kind, impugns the Church 



9 

for the violation of catholic unity, and for ingratitude to 
many noble and generous benefactors. Is it true? Look at 
facts. History portrays the victims of persecution in all ages, 
hiding themselves from public view, seekiug refuge in the wil- 
derness or in dens and caves of the earth. It has been reserved 
for these Southern martyrs, to be clothed with political power, 
and to command for themselves and their adherents the highest 
offices of profit and dignity. Behold them ostracised from their 
homes— to become representatives in the legislature: pilgrims 
and wanderers — traversing their judicial circuits quietly and 
leisurely, to administer justice ; driven by the sharp edge of 
persecution — to occupy lordly mansions and to sit down at 
sumptuous tables, who had never riches, some of them never 
homes before. 

Persecution is not very sharp which is thus displayed. Of 
one thing these persons have a right to complain — that the peo- 
ple under their rule are not satisfied. They will murmur. 
They are not reconciled to this change. Bereft of power in 
the land of their inheritance, the voice of their complaint can- 
not be hushed in a moment. Beholding the sad breach made in 
many communities and households, the deep sigh will escape 
from the lips, ' this is not the necessary result of emancipation.' 
For this restlessness and loud complaint they are abused for dis- 
loyalty and disobedience to authority. The South was never 
more proud and defiant before the war, are the words which fell 
from the lips of ruling statesmen in Congress. Protection, is 
demanded from this great wrong — protection, for those in power 
from those out of power — protection for scorpions who 
have stolen the dove's nest, that they shall not be obliged 
to listen to the plaintive cries of the mother bereft of her 
young — protection, for the soft slumbers of the wolf gorged with 
his prey that he shall not be disturbed by the bleating of the 
sheep-fold upon the midnight air ! 

The presence of the army and navy of the United States is 
everywhere entitled to an honorable recognition. Defenders of 
our national heritage, they eschew political and sectional animosi- 
ties. With few exceptions their officers represent the sense of 
honor, the heroism, the high moral culture of the nation. Their 
vocation exempts them from the temptation to craft and venality 
which are the vices of this age. While they remain what they 
are collectively, the nation will not want for a school of honor. No 
where in this land — alas that circumstances should obscure it for 
the hour — are these strangers more truly welcome than in this 



10 

community. Their honor is our honor, their heroism is our in- 
heritance and that of our children. Next to a local government 
of their own choice this people would almost unanimously prefer 
a military government. Until that boon is granted, let the army 
be invigorated under a wise leader, and its guardian care 
diffused through every parish, and every armed league will gladly 
disband, convinced that the nation's shield will afford them am- 
ple protection. 

This sentiment does not bind them to the silent approval of the 
attempt of the military, outside of their legitimate sphere, to de- 
prive this people of their just rights, to eject from their seats in the 
Legislature men afterwards proved to be entitled to their place, 
and to arraign the ministers of religion when they raise the voice 
of humble remonstrance in defen^e of truth and justice. • This 
people claim the army for their defence, not for their degra- 
dation. They are jealous for its dignity as well as for their own. 
They want to feel, when at the head of its columns they see the 
national banner with its glistening eyes looking on theni — they 
want to feel every pulse thrill with emotions of national brotherhood 
and not to bow their heads beneath its folds as a conquered and 
disinherited people. I am bold to make this charge — not against 
the Chief Magistrate of this nation, who is often in our prayers, 
never in our animadversions — nor against the chief ruler of this 
State, to whom we are equally bound to render honor — 
but against the power which is stronger than both, and which 
is holding this State under its inexorable sway, I am bold to make 
this charge — modern History has no example of a power so hard 
to propitiate, perhaps no example of equal patience under such 
misfortunes. Was it a mute prophecy of our coming fate, 
which is expressed in the emblem upon our national es- 
cutcheon — the Eagle with one talon holding forth the olive 
branch of peace to all nations, and with the other grasping the 
arrows of death, pointed to its own breast — friendly to all 
others intolerant and cruel only to its own ! 

I might have enlarged upon the wrongs inflicted upon the 
negroes more boldly, and not depart from the example of my 
excellent brother Bishop Whipple, whose voice has so often 
been raised in defence of the Indians from the cruel devices of 
roving adventurers, who are preying on their ignorance and 
inciting them to acts of hostility. His sorrows are mine. His 
weeping remonstrances are echoed in the depths of my soul. 
His example almost rebukes me, that I have kept so long silent 



11 

Tinder wrongs, which threaten to make one-half of this diocese a 
homeless wilderness. 

I have disclaimed any personal allusion. Can it be 
necessary to add that I am not speaking in the interests 
of sections or parties. The subject is no longer one to 
feed sectional strife, since it is so often witnessed that our citizens 
of Northern birth are among the most steadfast champions of 
Southern rights — nor of party, since the representatives of each 
party, both in the Congressional Committee and elsewhere are 
contending with each other to do us justice and to engage our 
gratitude and respect. For many sweet amenities of life and 
deeds of noble charity I am indebted to men and women of Repub- 
lican antecedents, never so conspicuously as now. At home and 
abroad, are to be found good men of each political hue, who are 
as innocent of the enormities under which we suffer, as the bow 
in the cloud is innocent, of adding to the terrors of the storm, I 
greet them as willing laborers in every effort to raise our 
emancipated citizens to a new and higher life. 

For their encouragement, let me say, and I am responsible before 
God for this testimony — that our people accept the results of the 
war without mental reservation. The supremacy of the Federal 
Government is no where more sincerely acknowledged, and if 
left to rulers of their own choice as in other States, and to the 
local administration of their own affairs, they are able to main- 
tain peace and execute justice towards all people of every race 
and complexion, universally and impartially. I will add that the 
best and most honored citizens of the State are unanimous in 
their purpose, and sanguine of their ability to arrest the spread 
of disorder and violence, and without imposing any restraint 
upon freedom of speech, or freedom of suffrage, to mature a re- 
publican system of government, under which the inhabitants of 
the State will remain a free, loyal, and in the end, a united and 
prosperous people. 

More than this may be accomplished for the African race. 
Relegated to the care of those who are allied to them by the tra- 
ditions of the past, the awakened sense of responsibility for their 
welfare will be quickly developed. Idleness and intemperance 
will be restrained, which are now clothing the 'men and children 
in rags. Domestic virtue, which our present laws do not attempt 
to reach, will revive, and they will be protected from the feuds 
which are filling the land with violence and blood. Schools will 
be opened, and the young be educated in obedience, as well as in 
knowledge, to meet their coming responsibilities. Avenues to 



12 

political power will not be closed, but they will be rescued from 
the fatal ambition to be made rulers, without the tutelage or dis- 
cipline necessary to make them citizens. Above all, religious in- 
struction will be communicated to the multitude, now sinking under 
superstition from an unhappy prejudice against * White Teachers, 
and they will learn to become intelligent christians — prepared to 
christianize Africa, after being defeated in their frantic efforts to 
Africanize Louisiana. God's ways are unsearchable, and who 
shall say that this dark problem so long fruitful in alienation and 
woe, may not become the solvent to make us one again, to dissolve 
the spell of fanaticism, to distinguish a true from a false philan- 
throphy, to rebuke hypocrisy religious and political, and to unite 
good men of all shades in one final struggle to restore to the 
nation its. lost inheritance of unity and concord ! 

Am I then to speak to my fellow-citizens only in words of 
despair, and not with the joyful accents of one, whose ministry it 
is to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, 
and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound. 
The crisis of our fate is over. The experimental system has failed- 
Good men of all parties moved by our patient submission are 
hastening to our deliverance. From the East, from the West 
and the North, we hear the cry — perish ancient animosities, and 
let the brotherhood of the nation assert its power. At home the 
restoration of ejected representatives in our Legislature is an 
event equally auspicious of a bright future. The greatest power 
on this earth is principle, and you have proved it by [your 
patient endurance. The power of a great principle is stronger than 
a throne and will subvert thrones. It has an empire of its own, 
numbering its subjects in every land, under every clime. Under 
its inspiration you have advanced until the period of your re- 
demption draweth nigh. Impetuosity has made many a man its 
victim where a calm sense of rectitude would have spared him to 
be a conqueror. Be patient, and in seeking only legal means 
to recover your power, give token how wisely, how gently, how 
magnanimously you will use it. 

* Among evil agencies, the most mischievous is that of colorod preachers, many of 
whom disown tin- Bible as a rule of morals for their race More fatal is the influence of 
these false teachers of religion, than that of the whole tribe of polticians. 



13 

With these words I retire from this theatre of action, which will 
soon cease to involve the interests of Christ's Kingdom. The 
Church once recovered from the perils which are now consuming 
its life, will make its voice to be heard in your political struggles no 
more. Descending from above, our religion interferes with no 
existing forms of human government. Its progress will be attended 
with no party triumph. Its accredited ministry exists to reform 
and bless the world, not to embroil themselves in its struggles for 
power. It affects not to concern itself with temporal things, but in 
the exercise of moral and spiritual might, to purge the nations of 
the earth from evil, and to raise mankind to a new and higher life 
with God. 

My Brethren of the Clergy will not be encouraged by what has 
been here spoken, to admit secular questions to enter the pre- 
cincts of the Lord's Sanctuary and to mingle in His worship. 
The voice of the Bishop has spoken, not from the Pulpit, but 
from another position where he stands a watchman on 
the walls of Zion. Upon him let the weapons of the adversary 
fall. God will not allow his strength to forsake him under 
reproach, while they modestly pursue their sacred mission. 
Higher functions are theirs than any which have here come 
under review. Higher interests invoke their zeal. It belongs to 
the functions of the Priest of God to deal with realities 
amidst the unrealities of this perishing world. Eternal truths 
are upon his lips. Immortal interests are in his custody. His 
work is expected to live when other men's labors are doomed to 
die. Earthly tribulations, .poverty, nakedness, fade into insig- 
nificance upon his sight. A guilty world stands before him 
accused of rebellion against God, exposed to coming judgment 
and the perdition of ungodly men. Hasten each one of us to 
arouse the slumbering conscience of rulers and people, of friends 
and foes, to prepare for the day of impending trial. Perish 
earthly animosities in the near prospect of that hour, when 
every man shall stand naked and trembling before God, and the 
final sentence of justice for which He is gathering materials form 
our daily history, will tarry no longer. " For with what judg- 
ment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet 
it shall be measured to you again." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



mi iiiii 111 mi 



014 645 141 A 



